Down, brothers, into the pit!
Down with a cheerful attitude!
There is a God who is watching over us,
A great and good father!
Strike up the bright note on the strings
To honour our God!
Begin the jolly song of praise
To our deliverer in emergencies!
Anyone who puts their trust in His grace and power,
Brothers, he will not shudder
In front of danger, he will look death
Courageously in the face!
If amongst us there is a cowardly miner
Who does not trust Him,
Let him not climb down with us -
Let him throw his pick and hammer away!
But no, we shall travel full of courage
Following the light of the lamp.
With a celebratory note on the guitar
We shall go down into the shaft.
Come on! Take your calling seriously,
When joy and hope beckon to you,
When a gold seam here, a silver seam there,
Shine brightly in your faces!
Keep climbing, further down, without fear!
Dig deeper into the shaft!
Up! If you want to hack out rich stuff,
You need to dig and hack with strength!
Don't give up! It is definitely coming,
The hour that will make it all worthwhile!
The sweat, the courage in the face of danger,
Will be paid pack with golden booty.
But He, the one who looks out for us
And protects us from accidents -
He will lead us back out of the mine
With a fatherly hand!
And even if the Earth quakes and breaks
And collapses on top of us -
It will bury us deep in rubble and night
And become our grave!
Come on, brothers, we shall never hesitate!
We bless our lot!
We shall die in our calling, and in you,
Oh mother Earth, in your womb! -

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has
been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has
never had any government or institutional funding, so if you
found
the information here useful, please consider making a
donation.
Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.